Seagate FireCuda 530 Is the First Third-Party SSD Compatible with PS5

Me: Oh 4TB, I want it...checks price WHAT THE........

Given how few games you can fit in the 600GB or so of internal storage, the 1TB is an absolute minimum.

But even that won't be much. Maybe 15-20 games if you're lucky.

Is that cheaper than £219.99 Series X/S's Expansion Card?
The upside of this is that you could use this for PC too unlike Series X/S's Expansion Card.

Lol, you’re ok, I’ll just continue to delete games once I’ve finished with them.
Remember people, PS5 games are smaller than last gen as long as they aren’t cross gen games (and also smaller than Xbox series games incidentally).

Well the expensive price tag isn't shocking (to me at least) given it's relatively new & the advantage of it being non proprietary, prices should come down faster than Microsoft's solution.

I will go with a 1 TB one.
This should be totally fine for me.

I'm sure we see a solution from Samsung as well. Maybe they are a bit cheaper

I’m just gonna wait to upgrade my ssd storage when prices go down.

@SirCroconut the Xbox drive is $220 in the USA and this new 1TB SSD compatible with PS5 is $255, so slightly more expensive (but also faster, so not really unexpected)

You can get a plug in hard drive 2TB for less than £60 and they can store PS5 games, you just transfer over as and when you need. So much cheaper and simpler.

@sqxrz price will drop but their stock will also take a hit because of PC user. Especially from crypto miners that mine with storage.

You should never have to take apart or take a screw driver to a modern piece of technology in 2021.
Even the N64 expansion was a slot you plugged into.
I hope no one damages or causes electric static discharge damage when under taking this pathetic solution of a process.
Sony I’m loving your games at the moment but your console form factor design and bad internal ssd upgrade solution is a backward consumer step, shame.

@Voltan I see, well, we just have to see which one will be cheaper with time. So this one is not as easy to use as Series Expansion Card but comes with better speed & PC compatibility. I expect this one to be cheaper especially once more Manufacturer releases PS5 compatible SSD. But needs to watch out for those Crypto Miners making SSD price goes high like with GPU.

EDIT: Coin like Chia already affected Storage prices right now: https://blocksandfiles.com/2021/05/18/chia-bitcoin-disk-prices/

I really haven’t had any issues so far with storage space on PS5.

I have an external hdd that stores all my games, and 6/7 PS5 and 3/4 PS4 games on system storage.

The transfer time from external hdd to PS5 is super quick so it really isn’t that big a deal imo. You can only play so many games at once anyway. If you’re jumping between 4 or 5 games then you probably aren’t getting the full experience

I just use a Samsung T7 1TB SSD and ferry the games back and forth when needed for native PS5 games.
Much cheaper and easier than adding even more internal heat to the PS5 console.

@BowTiesAreCool not sure I'd agree with simpler but you sure have a point on cheaper! What's the catch though? Surely this method has a catch? (I've never tried) Or else what's the point in these expensive SSD cards?

@SirCroconut Currently, you can pick up an Xbox 1TB expansion card for about £180 at Amazon so yes the price is quite a bit higher per TB.

Looking at the Seagate FireCuda, it varies from $300 per TB (2x $150 500 GB) to $250 ($1k for 4TB) + local taxes of course. In the UK, prices include the Tax.

This is of course just the 'first' that is 'officially' compatible and no doubt, we will see others. I do expect the cost to come down over time too - especially with more competition on the market

The extension ssd of ps5 is also available in pc.

@lolwhatno have you seen the steps involved? once you've managed to find one with the right dimensions.

Plugging in a usb is simpler than taking apart ssds and a ps5 and putting them together again, no matter which way you look at it.

@Corc11 The 'catch' is that if you want to Play any PS5 game that's currently stored on an external Hard drive - regardless of whether its an SSD or not, you will need to 'move' it to an internal SSD as it won't run from that external storage.

The point of this SSD is to 'expand' the internal storage with the same (or better) speed to match the 'supplied' storage so that PS5 games can be run directly from that storage. External storage options via USB do NOT have the required Speed to run PS5 games.

Of course you can buy a BIG external HD and store ALL your games on it, even run PS4 games from it, but if you want to play PS5 games stored on it, you have to 'move' it to internal - which may also mean having to move games from internal to external to make room for the game you want to play. That certainly stops the 'turn on and jump straight in'...

As it stands right now, the ONLY storage that will play PS5 games is the 825GB SSD supplied, of which about 670GB is available to the user. This expansion increases that storage so you don't need to keep deleting/re-installing or moving games just to play...

4TB = £769.99!?!? WOW!!! I'll buy 2 then + getting a 500GB or a 1TB is pointless really :-/ Even a 2TB is nothing nowadays. Saying that at least whichever one you get adds to the GB you got in the PS5 already, thank GOD. Hopefully the PS6 will use these to in the future then the prices will be low then er i think

I might pick up the 2 TB one at some point down the road but I'm in no hurry. The external hard drive solution works well enough for me.

I already have storage it's called blu-ray disc! I also have a 8Tb external 3.5" drive that I paid $189. for all my PS4 games. I tend to focus on just 1-3 games anyway and stick with them.

Anyone else scared to install one of these in case they break their ps5. Shouldn’t have to take of the backplate just to add storage. This seems like a huge design oversight

I'll wait for an external solution or wait until the internal SSDs are a lot cheaper and pay a professional to install it!

I really don't like deleting games, moved them to my external 2TB PS4 drive but the storage space is almost spent and it's becoming a bit of a juggling act.

Not sure if I should buy another external drive, move more PS4 games across and keep one plugged in at all times with the games I'm likely to replay like God of War and The Last of Us 1/2.

It's a problem but not the end of the world.

Think I'll wait abit longer to some other companies catch up, 500 and 1TB are pretty much useless, at first I tought the 600gb inside would be fine but I mean games like AC or cyberpunk and let's say borderlands 3 and GT sport the ssd has maybe 75gb left. And then if you have trophy videos some other apps etc screenshot and such. So yeah buying 1TB is bare minium and the price alone for that is bit ott

Awesome, will order a 1TB as soon as I can find one!

@Col_McCafferty I don’t think that an external solution will be possible. Of course you can use such a solution to move games to the external harddrive but you won’t be able to play Ps5 games from it.

@Dezzy70 with you on that. Im about as practical as a person with sausages for fingers and dont fancy my chances taking a screwdriver to my new fancy bit of kit. Plug and play should be standard

What these prices show is how much of a bargain you are getting with both the PS5 and Series X/S.

@Reeneman Yeah, probably right. I guess I'm going to have to buy a new one at some point and just get used to moving things around.

I transferred Spider-Man onto a drive after finishing it a couple years ago, then moved it back when I started a second playthrough last month, then transferred it from PS4 to PS5 and then transferred it back to the external drive once I finished it a couple of weeks back. That's just one game lol!

@Dezzy70 How exactly is Sony's solution here pathetic? It is the one area it has an edge over the Series X|S consoles. Prices here should fall faster & you already have loads of storage size options. I don't think they want a repeat of the failures of Betamax, PS Vita memory cards & the struggles for Blu-Ray.

Finally! But I'll wait until Samsung releases their own. Much prefer Samsung to Seagate

No way I'm getting anything at those prices. I'm fortunate enough to have decent internet so I don't mind having to download games as and when I play them. Would have liked the extra storage for games that I play every now and then like sports games, but not at those GB to £ prices!

I mean 1tb is half the cost of the PS5 and 2tb almost the full price! Crazy lol.

To people trying to compare the price to the Series S/X expansion card keep in mind that thing is proprietary junk that runs at less than half the speed as this one mentioned SSD. Not to mention go look at the Amazon reviews and you'll see hundreds of complaints about the thing failing. Non proprietary tech is ALWAYS superior for things like this. And installing an SSD should take you no longer than 10 minutes even if you have no knowledge of computers. There will be 500 videos on Youtube showing you exactly what to do.

Also Seagate has always been awful so I'd avoid their hardware like the plague. If money isn't an obstacle always go for Samsung SSD's, otherwise Sabrent, WD, and Crucial are all solid.

@sqxrz
Because the customer and more so general public have to take the cover off and use a screw driver and let’s hope they are aware of static discharge with the ssd memory and electrical goods once opened.
It’s 2021 and if Sony has used a plug and play expansion system it would have been more welcome and consumer friendly.

4tb

Take my money

Throws money at screen

@Dezzy70 It's a basic install process, anyone who doesn't understand can read a manual. No one is willing to learn anything these days.

@Dezzy70 If Sony were to make it a simple plug in port then they would have had to make a proprietary port/drive like MS. Your wallet will thank you in the long run as in the years to come SSD prices will drop drastically. You people are really exaggerating the difficulty here.

I bought a 4TB external HDD for my PS4 early last year and it was glorious. It was like going back to the PS2 era where there were no installs. Once the install was done... pop the disc in and play and never worry about installing or HDD maintenance (deleting for space) again. My entire PS4 collection (50 games or so) and I still have half a GB left.

For this, I'm definitely buying the 4TB again. I'm patient and can wait for the price drop on the FireCuda 530, but I definitely want one with a heatsink.

@sqxrz MS could easily sell it at a loss or close to breaking even if it wants to drop the price fast.

The price of the 2TB being more than double 1TB, 2x$254=$508< $514, and 1TB being only $100 more than $150 500GB makes the 1TB seem like easily the most sensible choice. You know, if you want your memory card to be fully half the price of your console. 🤑

Crikey! That's some expensive silicon!

So to get a 1Tb (ish) PS5, I need to spend £450 on the console and £120 on an extra SSD to shove up its interface. Add to that an extra controller for about £60 plus a charger dock and I'm looking at a bill of some £650 for my preferred setup! Erk...

@The_New_Butler You're complaining over the price of ONE confirmed compatible SSD. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08P2B6JKV/ref=emc_b_5_t Boom there's one that meets specifics and is even cheaper than MS's proprietary junk. It's also more than 3x faster. The disclaimer is there so idiots don't buy fake $20 SSD's on Alibaba and then complain when they don't work.

Ok... will be waiting for those price drops or better offers.

Worth noting that size has an effect on spec and speed

500MB - 7000/3000
1GB - 7300/6000
2GB - 7300/6900
4GB - 7300/6900

I might make do with an external SSD for a while and manage my collection that way, whilst waiting for prices/technology to settle...

@Haruki_NLI I hope this doesn't come off as snarky because I'm genuinely curious but why would you need 15-20 games installed at a time?

You can only play one game at a time and excluding an outlier like Cod which is 200 gig's, most games are smaller than that. You can generally have 4-8 games installed on the Ps5 internal storage at once, isn't that enough?

The ps5 downloads games so fast as well so deleting and downloading takes at most like 30 mins.

@The_New_Butler You're literally making your entire argument off this being a bad decision off one approved drive. It's also not required to have a heatsink, however there are dozens of $10 heatsinks on Amazon that are compatible and do fit. Once again still being cheaper. Speed absolutely makes a difference. Yes on PC's in real world settings its marginal, but these consoles were built for SSD technology and are basically the only thing more advanced than what's on PC nowadays.

Jokes on Sony and these SSD makers, I don't have a PS5 yet and by the time I get one the prices would be down.... I want a PS5

@rjc-32
I’m cool with it, it’s simple enough for me.
In used to build my own PCs.
But there are lots out there that don’t get things the way we do.
Hence my consumer friendly point.

I'd much prefer to stay with HDD for the lower price I don't care about loading times the prices for SSD's are just too high for me

Too bad the ssd in the ps5 is not removable, else it may be cheaper to buy another ps5 and gut the ssd from it, ala shark-fin style.

@The_New_Butler
Look I have a PS5, but not a fan boy like some in here. Totally agree with what you said.
It is totally poor from Sony and not a consumer friendly solution.
2021 and you have to take a cover off and use a screw driver, whilst little Jonny plays with the SSD upgrade card and possible puts latency static discharge into it.
Come on Sony and fan boys, be honest, it is a piss poor solution.

"5,500MB/s or faster is recommended"

As always with PC parts, this is just a suggestion

I am 100% putting in a Sabrent Rocket I have in my closet from my last PC upgrade as soon as it is working.

It is "only" 5000 MB/s (read) and 4400 MB/s (write)... but I'll see what happens.

I would hold off buying anything - tons of people will be doing the same thing. There will be a list on Reddit in no time of what works.

@The_New_Butler

"And you can say a heat sink isn't required"

Problem is, they are 100% required for Gen4 speeds on some. Both my Sabrent have it printed in a warning. They even came with the heat sink in the box rated for the heat it needs to remove.

It was the first thing I asked when I saw the bay - how is it being cooled (is there an airflow?) and can it fit my heat sink. Tons of testing will need to be done.

@Dezzy70 But that’s why you read the manual and learn. Casuals are unlikely to even bother upgrading so it’s more than likely “hobbyists” that will be interested in this. You have to start somewhere and learning to install an nvme is a fair starting point. Also proprietary solutions are not consumer friendly from a price standpoint, you only need to look at the vita to understand that

With Kracken technology, newer PS5 games won’t be as big as older PS4 games so the 700Gb on PS5 works for me

@The_New_Butler Yep, pay top dollar for a 7300 MB/s drive that ends up thermal throttling to 3500mb/s because it is in an oven

100% agree - waiting for the 1 hr Digital Foundry video.

Maybe even circle cut a 120mm off the shell and mount a Noctua NF-P12 or Arctic BioniX (they come in white 😅)

Gone down the deleting games route, even though I hate doing it. Got my PS4 games on a 4TB external drive. So will clear the backlog a bit and then download more from the library. Have just deleted the PS5 games. Since getting the PS5 about 5 months ago I've started trying to actually 100% games. So I don't have to download them again. 😂 I want the 4TB, so will be waiting until next year when the price will drop.

@Dezzy70 @Amin1998 @NeverRedNever I can see Game and CEX rubbing there hands at this solution. I can see them offering an installation service for those that are uncomfortable doing it themselves.

@Dezzy70 I think you are exaggerating here. I don't hear any complaints or issues whenever a user replaces their HDD for PS4's & that is an even more complicated process compared to inserting a SSD into a slot inside a PS5.

I'm pretty sure Sony will put up a step-by-step video/image guide on their support page on how to safely & properly install the SSD for the average joe.

@MrMetroid I get about two hours for gaming as is. Less when I get promoted in two weeks. That time downloading is time wasted.

Yes rest mode exists, but my PS5 likes turning itself off in Rest mode.

I would love the 4TB but never gonna pay that must for a SSD.

@BowTiesAreCool simpler than it actually sitting on the console?

@sqxrz that's probably because the only people replacing their internal HDD on the PS4 are people who felt comfortable going that route. Everyone else just buys an external and plugs into the USB.

Interested in other brands. I don't know how many Seagate hard disk drives I have owned in the past (at least 3 or 4) that failed, including a FireCuda 2TB hybrid drive that I used on my PS4 Pro.

@Octane For all of Microsoft's pro-consumer policies they have been throwing around lately, this makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. First of all, those drives are not manufactured by Microsoft, it is done by external companies like Seagate who simply license or get contracted by Microsoft to make them. Secondly, console manufacturers make huge profits by selling accessories to counter the loss in selling consoles. That's why most of their official accessories are always overpriced. Finally, why would they even subsidise such a move given that players can just delete games to make room for newer ones on their console's built in storage.

Microsoft is running a business here gentlemen, not charity.

@zupertramp True but installing the SSD is really no big deal. You just pop the plates, loosen up one screw & that's it! If that's still a hassle to some, I bet they'll just transfer their games to an external drive. If even that's too much, just delete them like you're used to.

@sqxrz
I’m cool with it myself, built PCs so no issue for me and did many hard disk drives for PS4.
But I will be honest and say I did about 8 PS4 disc drives for others as they were not confident doing it. Anyway I’m sure some will have fun with it.

£800? That almost the cost of a scalper ps5! Absolutely ridiculous! 😏😏

@Dezzy70 Well if you are familiar with installing & upgrading PC parts, then I really don't understand why you are against this. Sony's approach definitely gives players more storage options at competitive prices. You can already get a 4TB expansion vs 1TB max on Series X|S albeit at a price of an iPhone.

Just managed to preorder the 1tb from overclockers for £198 delivered. Looks pretty straight forward to me installing them, plus can hoover the dust ports whilst I'm at it.

Update, I've just been reading that seagate say the version with the heatsink fits fine, so just paid an extra tenner for that version.

@Abarth_71 you got to be a complete invalid to not be able to install a hard drive, ps3, PS4 have all been the same and are simple to do, not sure why anyone has any problems with this.

@huyi prices will hopefully go down by next year.

@sqxrz yeah it doesn't sound like anything more than queueing up a short YouTube how-to but people are lazy and/or don't always want to fuss with this stuff. It's not the end of the world but I imagine a Plug and Play option would have been preferable for most people, even if it were more expensive. Convenience is king.

@sqxrz
It was not for me, more others that I helped with the PS4 hard disk swap out, type customers.
Not everybody is clued up like myself and you and probably everyone on here.
My point was it could have been more consumer friendly, plug and play for the masses and average customer. Or a little tray at the back of the console, say like the Nintendo Switch, inserting a micro ssd card type thing but for the compatible PS5 SSD.

@sanderson72 yeah close to a grand I'm in no rush to buy a ps5 anytime soon, meh

Don't forget the £70 games too ROFL 🤣🤣🤣

I may need one in a year or two. Should be plenty affordable SSDs by then.

@huyi I mean, yeah, there are incompetent people. And just those that have no tech savviness whatsoever. Have you ever worked at a Best Buy or a Target? I'd say your average consumer is fairly clueless on specs, much less the know-how to do hardware upgrades.

@SirCroconut you also have to install it yourself tbh again it’s pretty simple but for convenience I would have much rather PlayStation have gone the Xbox one. Especially if that meant having it from launch it’s been nightmare storage wise last 8 months. I’ve already seen Xbox one go on sale for as low as $179.

I think Sabrent Rocket Plus, Samsung 980 and WD-Black sn850 are also compatible since they have up to 7000 MB/s read speed.
Also, they are 75 bucks cheaper than Seagate.

@Dezzy70 I don't see PS5 as something totally different from a computer. You can't just plug-and-play an M.2 SSD into a PC - you have to remove the side plate (or whatever) of your computer case, take a screwdriver, locate that M.2 slot and very, very carefully (!) insert the SSD into it and tighten it with the screwdriver. Not very user friendly, but if that stopped you from doing it, you'd probably called a specialist to help. I don't see why it has to be any different with the PS5. The console is a technological piece of hardware and should be taken with care and only if you know what you're doing.

@thefourfoldroot If your mainly playing single player games your def fine completing/deleting. The absolute killer is for all those playing latest cod & Warzone & battle royals Warzone & latest cod take up like 50% of storage just themselves.

@Yfs11six
You are right. There are sad outliers like that I suppose. Hopefully when things go fully next gen even the COD bloat can be trimmed dramatically.

@skaarj217
Just been reading up and getting ready.
Sony seem to advise on their official site to buy the one with the sink on. Makes sense else you will have to find your own heat sink they said amd make it all fit.
See it’s not that straight forward for the average customer.
Remember we live in geek world so it’s easy for us. 😂😂😂

@SplooshDmg yeah, I am not surprised you were going to.

I think people who dealt with a Gen4 Nvme are looking at a rectangular bay with a lid and wondering how does thermal work.

@Dezzy70 All PS games go to Steam, their console has rad LED lighting, and upgrading it involves popping open the chassis, removing the EMI shield, and throwing an m2 into the mainboard.

Maybe Sony's trying to tell us they're ending PlayStation and bringing back Vaio?

@The_New_Butler The PS5’s SSD is over twice as fasts as Xbox’s SSD. Of course it costs a bit more. $50 or so more for twice as fast isn’t bad.

The ssd is up and listed on Amazon UK both with and without heat sink.
Average public will go without heat sink as it is cheaper and probably fry the thing or something like that.
This is nearly as bad as Sony’s Dolby Vision low latency on their TVs in 2020, 2019 and 2018. Where the blu ray player had to do the Dolby Vision coding which caused compatibility issues with Sony TVs.
Luckily finally in 2021 the new Sony TVs have normally Dolby vision coding built into the tv, so no issues now.
I have never known a company that make things such hard work for the average customer.
No wonder they have dropped to third in the tv market and South Korea kick their ass into touch.

@skaarj217 In an ideal world, only Nintendo requires people to have a tri-tip screwdriver and spudger handy for disassembly for normal console use. If your console requires the average consumer taking it to a PC shop to upgrade according to the instructions.....why play console at all? I mean, really, have you seen the average GameStop and Walmart customer? Or for that matter, the average GameStop employee? Can you really imagine those people doing this? Sony thinks they can. Mark overestimates the average electronics consumer greatly.

Apple rounds out the edges and glues to seams so the primitives can't hurt themselves and became the richest company on earth....

@SplooshDmg @Dezzy70 I'm just waiting for the PS blog to start talking about Arctic Silver and multiplier unlocks. "Press and hold L2, R1, square, triangle, and L3 simultaneously, while holding the POWER button on the console for 12 seconds to enter UEFI setup on your PlayStation(R) 5 console... "

While I've got the money to spend I can't justify that price for a 4TB and considering I like to leave games installed for the long haul the more storage space the better.

I think I'll stick to using my external 8TB HDD and juggle games around. It has my entire PS4 library on it and my PS5 games. I move the one I'm playing to the internal and move it back when I'm ready to play something new, it doesn't really take long to do it, just a few minutes and cost effective enough.

I just wish the PS5 USB could support 12 or 16TB, that would be awesome.

What gets me is game software wise Sony are the top dogs and manage software games really well and their studios.
When it comes to hardware and hardware features be it console or tv, they seem to have the customer at the back of queue or do some daft things. Like only 2 hdmi 2:1 sockets in their 2021 oleds, no VRR etc. No wonder LG and Samsung are now first and second in the tv market.

Just FYI, Tom Warren at The Verge tested the beta update with a Corsair drive and reported it worked fine

Meaning there are already some options.

@Voltan
Is that with heat sink or without heat sink
Does it come with a heat sink.
Will it all fit if I use my own heat sink.
Hang on I’m Joe public isn’t a heat sink a hot tap running water 😂😂😂

@SplooshDmg
I think you use gas mark 5 and cook for 30 minutes until golden brown.
Place it next to your PS5 and hit with hammer until fully flat then install accordingly.

It's all a conspiracy to brick more consoles to drive demand up further. Between the low yield, and new post-SSD bricks needing replacement, they'll be sold out through Holiday 2026! GameStop can scalp $900 bundles with the complete plastic tennis racket PS Move holders and a bunch of PS4 classic games that work on BC, like Knack, and Cyberpunk 2077.

@Dezzy70 I don't have gas. Can I use my PS4 Pro or PS3 Phat? Do I need to reduce the time due to the higher temperature?

Since I only play maybe 4-5 big games now (and a couple of indie games), the 500gb or 1tb looks good.

@Dezzy70 I guess you've never seen a PC before then. You'll have kittens if you knew what I did to build my custom PC 😂
It also used to be the one positive of my old Samsung phone - being able to take it apart and add a new battery and SD card. Now I'm on Pixel and that luxury is a forgotten one

@SplooshDmg totally agree about this blurring lines. I've had a computer of some kind since the Apple IIe days, and for a long while did most of my gaming on those machines. But after all the hardware and software upgrades over time along with about a trillion troubleshooting issues, I eventually moved exclusively to console for gaming because it's just simpler. I just want to play the thing, not build or repair or upgrade it.

Probably why I'll never actually move back to PC for gaming despite my grumblings regarding ports.

@Dezzy70 speaking of - i just noticed the LG CX have just been discontinued for the new C1 so have come down in price quite a bit. Getting really hard not to upgrade my 1080p Sony.

The amount of people unable to pick a screwdriver is alarming lmao.

I bought a 2TB external that I keep all my PS4 games on so I can wait. This is the first of I hope many compatible drives so the more that come out the cheaper they will become. It’s not like Sony have partnered with seagate so you have to buy their drives only.

@NEStalgia "Apple rounds out the edges and glues to seams so the primitives can't hurt themselves and became the richest company on earth...."

This. I hate them, but they clearly know people.

@StonyKL
I have built 2 of my own PCs in the past in the old days. It not about me and us techs.
It’s the average customer. Also I bet I end up helping a few to buy and install the correct ssd in PS5. Gets me free food when I do favours so that’s cool 😂

@SplooshDmg "It's not that people are dumb, this is just crossing into enthusiast territory "

Yeah it sure feels that way.... 😂😂😂

@PresidentEvilX it's actually shocking to me that so many are computer illiterate 😁😁

@PresidentEvilX
I thought a screwdriver was an American cocktail drink, help me please 😂

@StonyKL I would recommend a LG C series Oled. I bought a C9 last year before I got my PS5 for the HDMI 2.1 features and it’s a cracking TV for gaming

@Marquez
That’s it, it was all a test for the ssd upgrade.
I’m so glad I passed the official stand test.
Another stupid design really being honest.
The PS5 form factor size and shape and whole stand thing is bad design and not consumer friendly at all.
Sony only get away with this and reason I have a PS5 is the games. If their games got bad or dropped off AAA in house studio wise then I would gone.
Sony games, magical.
Sony console bad design and anti consumer.

Some stuff from digital foundry to help.
Both with heat sink so you don’t have to mess about.
Seagate FireCuda 530 (heatsink version available) - $255/£200 for 1TB
Western Digital Black SN850 (heatsink version available) - $250/£218 for 1TB
Prices seem about right as well.

@huyi People just moan for moaning sake these days, there's plenty of choice in upgrades, zero issue.

PS5 CONSOLE: almost nonexistent or up to $1000 at minimum
PS5 GAMES: $70 (plus tax, plus tips)
PS5 SSD: up to $1000

Welcome to next gen gaming

@SplooshDmg
And that is my point, yes all us clever tech console maniacs on here can do this ssd upgrade easy no issue. But the general masses who Sony survive on and sell a lot of consoles and games to are not that clued up.
That is where Sony are poor, the fact they sell a console to average consumer who has no idea what to do or what it all means. That is poor customer quality in the design area.
Or a clever business tactic to sell them another PS5 console with 2tb internal ssd later down the line. I have your number Sony, it’s all about product life cycle and upgrades for three years time to sell more PS5s with more internal memory to the average customer.

Nah bro, I'm good. I can just use an external, I mean I can only keep up with 3 or so games at once anyway.

@zupertramp "But after all the hardware and software upgrades over time along with about a trillion troubleshooting issues, I eventually moved exclusively to console for gaming because it's just simpler. I just want to play the thing, not build or repair or upgrade it."

FINALLY somebody with my same experience. Everyone on the internet it's "it's not like that anymore" "it's so cheap even mid-range stuff runs everything at 8k max settings", "it's just like a console after initial setup!" I've been there, done that too long and I don't buy it!

My last build, a week after building it I literally spent the entire week up until like 3:30AM on work nights searching the internet and forums trying to troubleshoot constant BSODs. I went through all kinds of BIOS settings, Intel chipset upgrades, then troubleshooting the new problems and failure caused by that. Launching games and spinning in circles for hours to see if it survives without crashing, then starting again when it does, reinstalling video drivers, audio drivers, registry tweaks, then someone told me that that generation of nVidia cards had known issues and I should switch to ATI/AMD. So then I went through flushing the nVidia drivers out, loading Radeon drivers, familiarizing with that, and suddenly it seemed to work stable! So like 2+ weeks after getting my $2k+ system put together, I finally got to sit down and play a game other than for spinning in circles to push the GPU heat and monitor thermals at all the fans. Then 2 months later it crashes hard and the OS partition was corrupted and I had to start from scratch. Then a year after that it started locking or BSODing all the time. Someone tells me that all the mfrs GPUs had known issues that gen. So I upgrade to GPU #3, a new series. It's fine at first. Then a year later the system starts randomly powering off. Finally one time it doesn't come back up. The PSU was dead. And in all likelihood that's what was taking all the GPUs out from the start! A faulty PSU! I bought a PS3 at any price, then an X360 when I realized that PS3 ran 3rd party games worse than my prior PC. And after that, never looked back. I had 2 PS3's fail (disc drive in both cases) but at least it was one part, cheaper than the GPUs, and didn't waste months of my life over years, fixing it.

@The_New_Butler IIRC it's not even going to use the full bandwidth of these drives, so the PC benchmarks don't really apply to its use in a PS5.

This is going to be a utter disaster for people who don't know what they are doing and end up buying one. Sony, please just get your ease of hardware function right instead of creating even more headaches.

@SplooshDmg Since I had to bake my X360, it's only fair I boil my PS5 SSD.

@NEStalgia lol, sounds like that was a lot of work. I've been there. Sometimes it would just be some other software issue that would brick the PC. Like this registry error from hell I had when upgrading to Windows 95. That's going a ways back but man does that one still haunt me lol.

But people do say it's not like that anymore which has made me more open to returning, what with Game Pass and Sony ports. On the other hand I'd read you could use console controllers on your PC for Game pass so tried it and my sound stopped working. Didn't know for sure why but after ruling out HDMI or sound bar issue, I had to track down my sound card driver using model number and delete and reinstall. I don't even understand what one has to do with the other but that fixed it.

So I've mostly been fine being a console pleb.

@SplooshDmg Apple takes it a little far imo. I'm nowhere near as tech savvy as I once was (years of fixing other people's computers and my own took any joy I ever felt out of that hobby) but I also don't want to be trapped in Apple's extremely high-walled garden ALL the time.

And their stuff is too expensive. There's that too.

Are people here honestly surprised that they need to take off the cover to install an INTERNAL SSD?

Sony has already posted illustrated instructions.
https://www.playstation.com/en-us/support/hardware/ps5-install-m2-ssd/

-Pull the cover off.

-Take off one screw.

-Plug in the drive.

-Put back together.

A pretty simple process that allows for non-proprietary cards for the next 7 years.

@zupertramp Win95/98 era was a special kind of misery. I had one build, 98 I think, I'd go through my whole setup for everything for hours, go to play a game, and it would BSOD and corrupt the OS partition. And I'd have to reinstall for hours again right away. I did that 3 times before finally figuring out the problem was a Logitech driver for a joystick! Simply installing the driver and running a game would completely corrupt the OS partition! But it took weeks of that to figure it out. And I can't count the number of video driver installation failures that would yield panic and torture at 640x480 Safe Mode to resolve.

Yeah, everyone says it's so different now. But I remember back at the time those friends that would buy cheap off the shelf hardware and never had any problems. Meanwhile I'd splurge on premium everything (after the cheap stuff always failed me), and I'd STILL end up with unending problems.

The PC gods smile upon some people and embrace them in the light of the sacred pocket protector. Others of us are frowned upon and are sent the BSD devil to torment us.

FWIW, Xbox controllers work great on a Surface with Game Pass Cloud, and it ties into the whole Xbox app setup. Not quite PC gaming but it ties into the same interface (it can even turn the Surface on with the guide button just like a console.)

@SplooshDmg Apple's like Nintendo, except without the cool stuff. They were kinda cool when they were RISC boxes with color screens, SCSI while PC was IDE, DIMMS while PC used SIMMS. At some point around the iMac they just became lame overpriced low-end PCs sold to hipsters and neophytes.

"My first RROD literally took place like 30 minutes into the first Mass Effect. Was a total bummer."

Don't Fear the Reaper

@SplooshDmg LOL, that's one thing SSDs have done for consoles is removed that nightmare. PS4's had semi-accessible (with a screwdriver) HDD bays but restoring the OS was a nightmare. X1X was like that iMac. The HDD was at the bottom. Total disassembly required to replace the drive. Now with SSDs the internal drive should never fail within reason, but Sony has decided to grace us with the option of total disassembly to add expansion storage, anyway....a step back from the PS4!

@Carl-G I'm gonna flog some stuff on eBay to pay for the 4tb.. I like to have a lot of games installed so i can jump in and out of them.

@Dezzy70 "You should never have to take apart or take a screw driver to a modern piece of technology in 2021.".. agreed.. ever had to clean the heatsink on a PS4 Pro? it's a complete mess..

I'm sorry, but the way Microsoft handled expandable storage is 100% better than Sony's. Upgrading storage is definitely a step back from the PS4.

Sure Sony's solution is great for techies, but as someone who has worked in tech support... People are god damn stupid.

The average person buying the PS5 will definitely had difficult switching out the drive as just removing the covers to the PS5 is a pain in the butt cause you have to man handle them to get them off.

@NEStalgia Did you ever run Windows ME? That was a cursed product and a half, by the end it crashed if you tried to reboot with Alt+F4, Alt-F4 so I installed a dodgy copy of XP while I waited for my next paycheque.

I was always a PC enthusiast until I came down with the flu a few years ago and never recovered. I don't have the energy to waste faffing about with getting my games to run, hence jumping in with the PS5.

I do think that wrt the expansion people are making a mountain out of a molehill though. There will be lists of compatible drives on gaming sites, as well as on shop shelves in games shops, and once you've got it, other than popping the cover off (which you should do for dust removal anyway) it's just slotting in a card with a restraining bolt 🤷 I've had kids toys which required more work to change the batteries.

@theheadofabroom never ever just say "windows ME" to someone without warning. You don't know if it will trigger flashbacks. People could get hurt! 😆

That was the lowest moment in PC history, and that's saying something. I remember even Microsoft booth reps mocking it. On the clock! They were trying to get rid of the DOS kennel and move to NT kernel, bit squeeze one last DOS kernel out of it. I maintain that Y2K was a prediction about Millennium Edition.

I still don't think the average fifa playing ps owner is going to get along well with that process though. It shouldn't be technical but any pcie/m2 card is more delicate then the average consumer knows what to do with, I think.

@The_New_Butler lol yeah, after I gave up on PC I tried one more time with a prebilt MSI gaming laptop. Omg it was worse than my towers! It would freeze constantly, run hotter than a PS4 Pro in Mt. Vesuvius, and I was right back to "did you remove the heatsink and reapply the thermal paste?". No! I didn't reapply the thermal paste in a guffarging prebilt laptop! I bought it so I didn't have to do things like reapply thermal paste to use it for what I bought it for! No raytracing, tough. We're talking a good decade before real time ray tracing... So it basically rotted in the bag...

@BloodEagle I'm always positive I've snapped off the plastic tabs holding the cover on. Cleaning it feels like one of those YouTube product destruction videos where they microwave PS5s and things. You just grab a PlayStation by the cover and pull on it until you rip it off. I think I'd rather need a screwdriver 😂

I have my old PS4 Pro external 8TB drive connected to my PS5. The PS4 games play just fine, and if I need to offload a PS5 game or two, no worries.

@The_New_Butler @SplooshDmg

So the heatsink that comes with the Sabrent Rocket and Rocket Plus is too tall.

Also, there are no vents - I see no way for airflow 🤷‍♂️

Guess they had to add it in case "SIE cannot guarantee that all M.2 SSD devices meeting the described specifications will work with your console and assumes no responsibility for the selection, performance, or use of third-party products."

@Col_McCafferty unless there is a m.2 external drive it will never be possible to play off of an external drive. also its pretty simple to install why would you pay some one to do it.

@BAMozzy "with the same (or better)", I get what you are saying and you are not wrong, but "better" is a long way off simply because the internal storage silicone is designed to be accessed differently. I have my doubts that even the fastest m2 pcie4 currently on the market (so, 7000 and up, sequential read) will be able to perform the same way the internal storage does, but let's see when digital foundry comes out with their tests.

@twitchtvpat there is external m2 drive but the interface is at best usb-c and that is a no go.

I think i'm better off just buying a 4TB External HD and transferring games between the two if i want to play them.

@Floki the average person will not do a thing and once this supply thing is over, the average person will go for a 1.6 TB ps5 version during xmas 2023.

@Floki I have an xbsx, and you are comparing apples to pokemon. Yes, xb's solution is neat and easy. Is it cheaper though? Pound for pound (in terms of performance for your buck) hell no. That's like comparing an Audi R8 to a Bugatti Chiron.
Is R8 a damn fast car? Yes it is. It still ain't a Bugatti Chiron.
In three years time you will see xb doing another xb revision to catch up with Sony's current storage performance and Sony doing another ps5 revision to catch up with xbsx compact design.

@BowTiesAreCool

That's exactly what I did to primarily store ps4 games. Works like a charm...later I'll get this.

@The_New_Butler It’s been less than a year into the next gen. Give it some time and exclusives and other games may start to show more of a difference. Can I guarantee anything? Of course not. It definitely may make a difference though, especially considering that the SSD is the most important part of next-gen consoles. We have had no time for the PS5 to be squeeze for power. Until then, saying it won’t make a difference is very premature.

@rjc-32 You can see that most repair videos on consoles are for HDMi ports. People don't know how to plug in a cable and you want them to learn to use a screw driver )

I'm too Yorkshire. I'm just going to beat one game at a time then delete and download the next one

OMG I didn't realise...
there are TWO SCREWS 😱 HAAAAAA.....!!!
Haha 😅

@TheDudeElDuderino It has to offer at least the same performance as the internal storage so that Games run the same off of it. It cannot be 'worse' otherwise it would have a direct impact on the game. And whilst 5.5GB/s is 'fast', its not that fast compared to RAM for example that can transfer 10x as much data per second.

Go back and watch 'the Road to PS5' video with Mark Cerney who actually talked quite a bit about SSD's...

I put a 2tb in my ps4 that was much more difficult than putting a new stick in your 5.

@Dezzy70 The alternative is an expensive proprietary storage solution, which worked oh so well for the PSP and Vita... and probably won't go well for the Series X/S in comparison to using SSDs that benefit from marketplace competition.

@Dezzy70 I have upgraded my PS4 so many times and it never went wrong. Just look at a YouTube guide with your Phone take your time a people make such a big issue about something that simple. You know how my PS4 died i got a poweroutage when updating the firmware.

@Flaming_Kaiser
This was yesterday we did all this and we had such fun and a chat being a PS5 owner I’m ok with it. Already checked it out you better getting the ones with the built in heat sink that fit the PS5 as a single source solution.
Without the heat sink already with the ssd you have find you own heat sink and make sure it all fits.
My issue was with the general gaming public doing all this not us tech heads. 😂.
I bet I end doing all my friends ones like I did with the PS4 hard disk swap. I do have my uses.

@AFCC Look at a older 4TB they are also quite expensive so i didnt expect anything else.

@The_New_Butler I think @Jaz007 is right, it's way too early to know if/ when the extra speed will be an advantage. Its well too early in the life cycle to know. But I did read an article with an unreal 5 engine dev the other day that said the higher I/O bandwidth not only helps with loading and streaming assets, but also streaming in textures.
As the unreal 5 engine will probably be one of the most used, it can only help Sony's side. Will that make any real world differences that the average gamer will notice? 🤷. But I do know that it gives Sony's 1st party devs a great platform to make amazing and detailed worlds.

@The_New_Butler yes we'll have to see. But even if it is just 1st party and exclusives, we the gamers are going to benefit from Sony's decision to put such a fast ssd in the ps5.

This from the VP of engineering at Epic Games last year:

This goes beyond faster loading speeds. Guaranteeing that level of performance for every PS5 means developers have the freedom to stream so much content every second, which could fundamentally change how levels are designed and how content is streamed.

“The ability to stream in content at extreme speeds enables developers to create denser and more detailed environments, changing how we think about streaming content. It’s so impactful that we’ve rewritten our core I/O subsystems for Unreal Engine with the PlayStation 5 in mind,” he added.

Now they've said unreal 5 is very scalable, so I'm sure the series x/s will still have great looking games.
Me personally I'm glad Sony went this route, for the sake of 2 screws id rather have the fastest/ best tech I can.

Seems like there's a lot of comments on here about peoples issues with the technical nature of the upgrade. I converted to being a Mac user many years ago due to having had enough of the mess that is the Windows / PC ecosystem. Spending more time sorting out hardware / driver issues than actually doing anything useful just got boring so I jumped ship.

I'm still a very happy Mac user and have had a number of machines over the years that have all been very reliable and user friendly. They are not without problems but those are few and far between and usually don't take me long to sort out.

I'd definitely put the PS5 internal SSD update into the same bracket as upgrading say the memory as the current iMacs. It's really not that hard and a lot of companies e.g. crucial make it even easier to choose the right parts as you just need to select your machine from the drop down menus and it gives you all the upgrade options.

Yes it's not as easy as the Xbox's external storage option but it's actually not as hard as all that and I've had lots of friends ask me to upgrade various Mac machines over the years so I'd imagine if someone is put off by having to do it themselves they will ask for help. And that's assuming that people will want to upgrade as a lot will just delete stuff that they aren't using, which I'd imagine is the same for Xbox users as well.

And I feel the same as @Serialsid here in that I'm much more excited about the fact that PS5 has gone for the faster tech than I would be if they had gone for the slower easier to upgrade option.

Someone may have already posted this above (I haven't read through the thread), but DF have released a few potential options.

Seagate FireCuda 530 (heatsink version available) - $255/£200 for 1TB
Western Digital Black SN850 (heatsink version available) - $250/£218 for 1TB
Gigabyte Aorus NVMe Gen 4 7000S - $199/£188 for 1TB
Patriot Viper VP4300 - $225/£210 for 1TB
Samsung 980 Pro (requires additional heatsink) - $199/£178 for 1TB
Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus (requires additional heatsink) - $199/£199 for 1TB
Corsair MP600 Pro (requires shorter heatsink) - $199/£185 for 1TB
Inland Performance Plus (requires different heatsink) - $189 for 1TB
Adata S70 Gammix - £151/$159 for 1TB
MSI Spatium M480 - no retailer listings yet.

I agree that, on the surface this seems finicky compared to Microsoft, but in the long run this is better for the consumer (competitive pricing, non propriety, potentially even faster drives down the line).

Also it's not really any different than popping some RAM into your Mac surely?

@The_New_Butler "MS have the ability to price these things at whatever level they like. Break even, take a loss whatever they want."

Could but won't.

"They can also license the tech to third parties at any time."

Wrong, I'm afraid. They said it was an exclusive partnership. Hence why the price will never be at break-even or certainly at a loss.

"To be clear as well it is only the form factor that is proprietary. All the tech inside is standard stuff, they have just built the card to be the size of a PS1 memory card and for the heat sink to be built in."

Six of one, half a dozen of the other. Proprietary = proprietary. I refer you back to my previous points.

I own a Series X too and was largely an Xbox-only gamer last-gen, but as others have said you're seriously over-exaggerating how 'difficult' this would be to anyone with a brain cell and coming across as a bit of a fanboy with it.

@SilkySmile89 Like I said, people have the option to read the manual for any task at hand. Key term here is learn.

@The_New_Butler but so what if it is limited to 1st party and exclusives? That means we the consumer get the very best games that they can make on the hardware available. That the consoles we have bought have value, that Sony's devs can maybe make games and use ideas they never thought possible before because Sony chose this ssd.

"Why can't I have everything right when I want them?!!!!!!!!!!!!11"

cries in Spanish

Download, play, delete. There. Problem solved.

I’m surprised at the number of people unwilling to learn the simple task of unscrewing something and inserting an item into a slot. Guys, take it from someone who has been building PCs since the late 90’s; this is easy! You don’t even have to research which parts are compatible, Sony did the heavy lifting for you!

TECH NINJA APPROVED

@BAMozzy thanks, I know the video by heart and understand the technology quite well, and I am telling you "similar" will not be "identical". You go back to the video and pay attention to how they organised memory modules of the internal ssd and communication channels to those chips and you will see where the advantage to pcie nvme is. Sure, it will be "similar" but give it some time until they release it and test - you will see that there will be differences if you run a game from the internal vs nvme storage.

But also, people, don't worry, any external usb ssd for your ps4 games and as for ps5 native games why worry, there will not be enough of them released until spring 2023 🤣 to take uo the space so we are all good
To friend players on this site who did not manage to snatch a ps5 - you are just fine, there is nothing to lose your sleep over. Honestly, just wait for black friday bundles 2022. PS4 still rocks!

@TheDudeElDuderino And as Mark Cerney stated, they would need an 'internal SSD' with more 'speed' to make up for the lack of Priority Lanes etc and even in the presentation intimated that 7GB/s may well give the same 'overall' experience.

In the talk, Mark himself says that the PS5 has 6 Priority Channels and the M.2 has 2 so their Custom I/O has to arbitrate the extra Priorities rather than the M.2 drives Flash Controller and so the M.2 drive needs a little extra speed to take care of the 'different' approaches.

Obviously, as Sony stated, they have tested this particular SSD to ensure its fully compatible with their architecture and meets the necessary criteria to ensure 'smooth' running of games.

The Seagate 530 has speeds up to 7.3GB/s - which if you go back to Mark Cerneys 'Road to PS5' and watch from around the 21min mark, this fits with the Slide image of 7GB/s as a 'ballpark' aim, which wasn't really available at that time.

To me, when I first saw the presentation and hearing what Mark himself stated, yes the built in internal SSD is operating slightly differently due to more lanes of Priority - but those that are 'Officially' Compatible make up for that with more 'bandwidth' speed.

At the end of the day, the vast majority of gamers won't care whether the built-in SSD and expansion SSD handle Data transfer in a 'different' way due to their differences, all they care about is whether or not the games run the same to them - that their 'experience' isn't impacted on.

So yes I know there is 'differences' between both SSD's but its a 'different' approach to get the same 'end' result. If Sony are telling people that these 'drives' are fully compatible, then they should deliver the 'same' results and not negatively impact on the game. It has to perform as well, if not better - which is what I said.

I never mentioned 'Identical' at all, I said the results should the same or better - in other words, if it takes 10s to load a game from the built in SSD, it should take 10s or less. if textures/assets etc don't pop-in, don't get streaming lurches etc on the built-in, you don't get that on the expansion either. I couldn't care less if one is perhaps more efficient with 'more' lanes of Priority and the other is much faster to offset that - the end result has to be at least the same in terms of the way a 'game' loads/performs etc.

I think you need to re-watch Marks Presentation as he clearly states that whilst Sony has more lanes of Priority, they had to wait for internal SSD's that could offset that by raw speed and throughput...

@TheDudeElDuderino You would have had a point if you just stuck to just saying price vs performance. Instead of trying to make comparisons between 2 cars that aren't even worth price vs performance that they offer...

@BAMozzy we are on different frequencies. I am saying that the end result will not be the same. Similar? Yes. Identical? NO. Better? Hell no. You have a different opinion. Fine.
Cheers, those planes are not gonna fly themselves in Flight Simulator (I wish xbsx version of the game actually utilised ssd storage to the fullest and that xbsx actually had ps5 grade storage... ps5 vs xbsx in their late years will be ps3 vs xb360 (one could do the unimaginable the other was an old console)).

@Floki yeah? well, you know... that's just, like, your opinion, man.

Pro-tip: if/when taking the panels off of the PS5 to fit an expansion SSD, consider taking the opportunity to clean the dust out of the fan and "gills" on the sides of the console. You'd be surprised how much dust gets in even if the console hasn't been used that much. The Series X has a superior airflow design even if that isn't perfect either.

For me, I don't own enough PS5 games for it to be worth dropping money on expansion yet. Having an external USB SSD drive for running the many more PS4 games is fine.

@TheDudeElDuderino Why buy R8 v10 for $150K when you can pick up GT500 for $70k with almost 200 more HP, is a better track car, and it a more practical daily... If I was gonna spend R8 money. I would probably spend a bit more and just grab Porsche 911 Turbo S.

As for the Bugatti Chiron... No car is worth $3 million.

@Dezzy70 totally agree with everything you're saying on here.

Will defo grab a 4TB one for my main PS5 but just a 2TB for the other 4 PS5s that I own.

Comments is too long, don't know if this is there or not, but here you go, from playstation support page:

• You should carefully review drive specifications prior to purchase and contact the vendor or manufacturer if you need further information. SIE cannot guarantee that all M.2 SSD devices meeting the described specifications will work with your console and assumes no responsibility for the selection, performance or use of third-party products.

Just bought the WD BLK 850 2TB with Heatsink. WD announced just recently will be second drive to be compatible and is going through testing. I strongly believe it will work. They are on sale now so pick on up before they go. 30 days to return so i got time to know if it will be compatible or not.

You can also buy one without the heatsink and add your own heatsink ,there is plenty that will work based on Sony's requirements.

https://shop.westerndigital.com/products/internal-drives/wd-black-sn850-nvme-ssd#WDS500G1XHE-00AFY0

@Flaming_Kaiser I have a 4TB external for PS4 and it cost me 130 euros lol so this price is ridiculous! You can buy both new gen consoles with that money

@AFCC You know what the prices where for the normal SSD in the past. This will be no different when they become the standard prices will drop nothing new.

@Floki Still these SSD are faster just more expensive to.

@Flaming_Kaiser yeah... Cause 1-2 seconds faster than Xbox in 3rd party games is totally worth an extra $50+

@Floki If $50 is such a issue buy a Xbox then plus you can use the SSD in other stuff besides the Playstation to the Xbox One is a dedicated one so that sucks to.

I read that all Internal SSDs need a heatsink?
So I decided to go for a 1tb WD_BLACK SN850 with Heatsink.......... The second PlayStation 5 compatible internal SSD 😊😊😊

@NEStalgia honestly that's a pretty rude statement regarding the intelligence of the average retail store employee.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KDDKDNN/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_YVQFQDMRD4X92MPYDG7A

Considering that heatsinks are $10 and just involve attaching pads, layering the components in order and tightening screws; yea give them more credit than that lol

@Flaming_Kaiser Alas... I would if I could find one, but I'm stuck with a PS5... so yeah

@Dezzy70 This is a bad take. More convenient upgrade solutions require proprietary elements (like the N64 slot you mentioned). The way Sony has done this is the best way. You can purchase drives from any manufacturer using a standardized format. Proprietary drives just for the convenience of not using a screwdriver is a terrible idea.

@ILikeStake
It’s fine with me but average Jo public it is not.
A plug in solution would have been better for the general public consumer no doubt about it.
They are used to plugging in usb sticksand micro as cards.
Not opening up and using a screw driver on these devices. Also making sure they get the right ssd and one with a heat sink which is slightly more expensive or try to get an ssd without a heat sink, then find the right heat sink and make sure it all fits.
There is no way on gods earth is this a good solution compared to a simple plug in solution.
This is so Sony can sell the general public a 2tb PS5 further down the line and product life cycle.

@Dezzy70 We aren't going to see eye to eye on this one. Expensive proprietary plug in storage is awful and what killed the Vita. Insane to me that someone could think that's what should have been done here.

Avg Joe will just delete crap and not even think of expandable storage, it will just be what it is.

@ILikeStake
That’s cool we don’t agree, each of us to our own opinion that’s what counts.

@Dezzy70 That we do agree on, have a good weekend

@ILikeStake
And you.

@Floki You are stuck with a PS5? Its easy to sell it in Ebay and im sure a Xbox X is cheaper to get of Ebay.

For dummies like me:

• Wait a year or two for affordable price.
• make sure it says compatible with PS5 and has a heat sink (or buy a cheap heat sink separately also marked as compatible).
• watch a video on how to unscrew a screw and then screw it back
  This is more consumer friendly than a proprietary memory extension in so many ways.

@Dezzy70 @zupertramp And some think you need a PhD to install a compatible SSD into the PS5.

https://youtu.be/wzgRJnW-CpA

@shamirqushairi
I have a bachelor of science honours degree
Does that help me 😂
With respect some on here, us techs need to remember there are a lot future PS5 owners that will not have a clue.
Like I have said before I had to do a fair few PS4 hard drive swaps for people in the day.

@shamirqushairi that's actually a very helpful video. And demonstrates that the hands-on component of this installation is fairly straightforward.

Some of the issue, I think, is all the requirements beforehand. Heat sink, physical dimensions, capacity, speed... while some geek out on that kind of stuff, others really can't be bothered. Still, we'll likely get to a point where the box reads "for playstation" or something which will simplify things for the lay-person.

All in all though, it's far more complicated than it needs to be for a console imo. After all many of us buy consoles because it means games without all the PC shenanigans (drivers, OS differences, spec requirements, etc).

Edit: It'd be one thing if it came with a reasonable amount of space to begin with but it doesn't. The fact that adding a drive is almost required is what really boggles regarding the decision to avoid a proprietary solution.

@Dezzy70 Well this is just a beta phase after all, your average joe won't even know what a beta phase is to begin with. I bet Sony would come up with a 'PS5 compatible' label for SSD manufacturers. Also since you're simply adding additional storage instead of replacing it, the setup process is definitely easier than replacing your internal HDD like on the PS4.

@zupertramp I don't think it's complicated to begin with. Yes the specifications laid out by Sony makes it look like one giant headache but it's just there to protect them legally & it's still in beta. Also, I don't hear anyone complaining about the complexity to swap the PS5's face plates for a custom one & the SSD is just one screw away beyond that. If kids back in the X360 days manage to pull off some sick custom plates just to score some bragging rights, how hard it is just to loosen just one screw beyond removing those pesky plates?

...

I got to hand it to Microsoft & Seagate for developing a slick, minimalist & easy to use external drive that can easily upgrade your storage needs but Sony's approach is going to pay off big time in the long run. Already out of the gate the cost of $ per GB is better & you get more storage option than Microsoft's offering which will only get cheaper over time. If there's one thing I know, people are definitely willing to put up with minor inconveniences or even compromise just to save some cash.

@shamirqushairi "people are definitely willing to put up with minor inconveniences or even compromise just to save some cash."

I really think you have this backwards but then again it's not really a hill I'm trying to die on.

End of the day, I maintain that it could be easier and I'm also not sure why everyone is convinced Microsoft's option won't ever see a price reduction and/or more storage options. It's just as early for them as it is Sony.

And yes, Sony does make it look like a giant headache... And Microsoft does not.